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Lot 65
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Best Image of Abraham Lincoln: “Closest… to ‘seeing’ Lincoln… A National Treasure” Original Hesler/Ayres Interpositive
Best Image of Abraham Lincoln: “Closest… to ‘seeing’ Lincoln… A National Treasure” Original Hesler/Ayres Interpositive
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Description:

Abraham Lincoln
n.p., ca. 1895-1900
Best Image of Abraham Lincoln: "Closest… to ‘seeing' Lincoln… A National Treasure" Original Hesler/Ayres Interpositive
Photograph

An unparalleled opportunity! University Archives is thrilled to present an extraordinary artifact: a photographic image of 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), created ca. 1895-1900 by George B. Ayres using Alexander Hesler's original 1860 collodion negative of Portrait Sitting No. 2. This interpositive - a silver gelatin positive transparency on glass - represents perhaps the most vivid and lifelike photographic likeness of Lincoln ever produced. It is offered in April 2025, just in time for the 160th anniversary of Lincoln's assassination.

***Please note: This lot will require third-party shipping. We can recommend a Fine Art shipper.

The gelatin glass plate interpositive of Lincoln was created by George B. Ayres (1829-1905) ca. 1895-1900, after an original collodion negative taken by Alexander Hesler (1823-1895) in 1860. The interpositive was cleaned and restored by experts at the George Eastman House & International Museum of Photography & Film (Rochester, New York) in 2007, following a 2-year exploratory research phase. It measures 8.625" x 11" and is currently housed in an elegant custom-built cabinet presentation case designed by Arnold VanDenburgh of Rochester, New York. The mahogany veneer case has a slanted top with two hinged doors. The case is illuminated by a hidden light source that dramatically backlights the image when the doors are opened and extinguishes it upon closure: an elegant mechanism offering an extraordinary viewing experience! The case measures 14.5" x 16" x 13.5." The Lincoln interpositive was prominently featured in George Eastman House events in February 2009, to celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. Accompanied by additional provenance items described at length below. Provenance: Lincoln scholar King Hostick family by descent through a close friend.

This Lincoln interpositive traces through descent to the esteemed collector and Lincoln scholar King Hostick. Comparable objects of this caliber are virtually nonexistent in private hands. Ayres's interpositives, as well as those of other photographers - particularly ones of this size, clarity, and historic resonance - probably have never been seen before on the market. Consulting recent prices achieved through private sales and at auction inform our valuation of this interpositive. Notably, in June 2024, Sotheby's sold a daguerreotype photograph of Dolley Madison, slightly larger than 3" x 4," but with a cloudy history, to the National Portrait Gallery for $465,000.

A much less significant, small stereoscopic view of Lincoln taken from a much later photograph sold at Cowan's Auctions in 2012 for $35,000. Prints made after the fact trade often. Topping the list would be the large Alexander Gardner prints of a less defined and less desirable image of Lincoln. Gardner prints measuring 15" x 18" each fetched around $100,000 at auction in 2004 and 2011. But the Hesler prints, probably made from this same Ayres interpositive, consistently fetched $3,000 - $15,000 privately and at auction, depending on size and condition. Prints possibly made from the present object in the modern era range from $300 - $1,000. A well-known Lincoln dealer has offered Gardner modern prints for $2,500. In terms of investment value, one might recoup the cost of this image, if it sold at its low estimate, by selling as few as 500 to 1,000 prints. Outweighing this calculation is the extraordinary life of the image itself: its meaning to American history and its remarkable resurrection through the use of 21st C. technology.

Abraham Lincoln is reputed to have said of this photograph: "That looks better and expresses me better than any I have ever seen; if it pleases the people I am satisfied." Lincoln's law partner W.H. Herndon said of the portrait that "no other artist has ever caught it," referring to Lincoln's special essence. Grant Romer, George Eastman House Director of Photograph Conservation for several decades, described this interpositive as "the closest you will ever get to seeing Lincoln, short of putting your eyeballs on the man himself." Every detail of Lincoln's visage is rendered with stunning precision: from the furrowed brow and coarse texture of his hair to the mole upon his right cheek and the singular curve of his lower lip. Glass plate photography like this provides an incredible degree of high-definition detail that is normally dulled by paper print photography.

Chicago photographer Alexander Hesler captured four portraits of Abraham Lincoln - just announced the Republican presidential nominee - as the latter sat by a window in the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield on June 3, 1860 [Charles Hamilton and Lloyd Ostendorf, "Lincoln in Photographs: An Album of Every Known Pose" (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), 46-49 (Image O-26).] Hesler created wet-collodion glass plate negatives by coating a glass plate with a solution of collodion (cellulose nitrate) and a soluble iodide. He then immersed each plate in a solution of silver nitrate in the darkroom. The plate was still wet when exposed, and then Hesler immediately developed and fixed the negative. He then applied a protective varnish to the plate. To make albumen prints from these negatives, Hesler and other photographers used paper floated in a mixture of fermented chloride and egg white, dried, and floated in a solution of silver nitrate. The paper was put into direct contact with the negative, and sunlight was used in the exposure process. Over time, this process can deteriorate the negative, allowing only a limited number of prints to be made from each negative.

In 1865, fellow photographer George B. Ayres bought Hesler's studio and negatives when Hesler retired. Ayres later moved to Buffalo, New York, and then to Philadelphia. In the 1880s and 1890s, he specialized in making and selling prints of Abraham Lincoln, and it was during this time that he created this interpositive, using Hesler's original wet-plate collodion negative to create it. On November 13, 1900, Ayres made 22" x 28" negatives from the interpositive, from which in turn he created prints.

Hesler's original glass plate negatives - and perhaps also this interpositive, because the glass shatter patterns are very similar - were tragically broken during a postal shipment to St. Louis in 1933. The post office paid the claim, and one of the original negatives ended up in the Smithsonian Institution's vault. Some of the duplicate plates found their way to the Chicago Historical Society, now the Chicago History Museum.

In 2005, the owner of this interpositive asked the George Eastman House about the possibility of restoration. It was expertly restored at the George Eastman House over the course of 18 months by Katherine Whitman, a Fellow at the George Eastman Museum, and George Wiegandt, Assistant Director for Conservation Education at the George Eastman House's Advanced Residency Program. Museum technicians first carefully cleaned the broken plate fragments. They then painstakingly reconstituted the damaged plate, employing a vertical assembly technique, using an acrylic copolymer. They also repaired four areas of loss with epoxy and covered void areas with digitally reproduced inserts on transparent stock. Finally, the interpositive was stabilized on a clear silicone bed. George Wiegandt discussed the interpositive and its restoration process at a lecture entitled "Abraham Lincoln: From Shards of Glass to National Treasure, the Conservation of the Hesler-Ayres Portrait Interpositive" at a lecture delivered at the George Eastman House on February 26, 2009.

The interpositive is accompanied by extensive paperwork, comprised of:

- An important manila envelope pen-inscribed "Geo. B. Ayres" at upper left, and entitled "Lincoln - No. 2. / Positive. / 22 x 28 negatives made from this, Nov 13, 1900" on the front cover. Expected wear, 8.625" x 10.5." Establishing a direct link to George Ayres. According to the George Eastman House, this is the only interpositive image of Hesler's Portrait Sitting No. 2 known to exist.

- 50+pp of documentation from the George Eastman Museum, ca. 2005-2007, consisting of the Examination Record, Treatment Proposal, and the detailed illustrated typed research notes of Katherine Whitman, Advanced Residency Program Fellow at the George Eastman House. Also included are custodial receipts and correspondence between the consignor and the Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation at the George Eastman House. With a copy of Katherine Whitman's research and conservation findings, "Conservation of an American Icon: the Reconstruction of the Lincoln Interpositive," Jessica Keister, comp., "Topics in Photographic Preservation" 15 (2013): 15-24.

- A booklet published by The Smithsonian Institution, by Alexander Wetmore, "Two Original Photographic Negatives of Abraham Lincoln" (Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian Institution, October 16, 1936), discussing damage to the Lincoln plates caused by the postal service in 1933.

- Four exhibit boards and other visual aids from the January 2009 Lincoln celebrations at the George Eastman House relating to the restoration of the interpositive. These measure: 19.875" x 42"; 16.875" x 44.75"; 20" x 26.5"; and 23.875" x 11.125."

An object of both profound historical consequence and rare visual immediacy!

***Please note: This lot will require third-party shipping. We can recommend a Fine Art shipper.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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    Dimensions:
  • case: 14.5" x 16" x 13.5"
    • Artist Name:
  • Abraham Lincoln
    • Medium:
  • Photograph<br />

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April 23, 2025 10:00 AM EDT
Wilton, CT, US

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